There are situations in which personnel travelling in an armored vehicle require the ability to quickly exit the vehicle through an opening other than the existing doors. For example, in the event of an attack that renders the normal exit routes—vehicle door or hatch—inoperable, personnel require the ability to rapidly exit the vehicle to avoid further harm or danger. Mechanisms that allow for such exiting of a vehicle are here called emergency escape/egress mechanisms, and include mechanisms for enabling escape/egress from a vehicle through openings that are not used during normal operation.
In the case of an armored vehicle, the prior art provides various mechanisms for emergency escape through the (bulletproof) windows of a vehicle, but the designs for such escape are specific to windows, in that equipment/hardware used in enabling emergency egress through a window cannot obstruct the view through the window prior to use for an emergency egress. Further, the windows in some vehicles make emergency access difficult. Finally, for some kinds of vehicles, there are areas of the vehicle surface that can accommodate an escape hatch for emergency egress, either in addition to or instead of windows configured for emergency egress. Thus, what is needed is an escape hatch providing emergency egress through some other vehicle surface other than the windows of a vehicle, i.e. through an opaque section of the vehicle surface.